Ragged Wing Presents THE ART OF LEAVING

Ragged Wing Ensemble (RWE) has announced the program for its final event at The Flight Deck, its brick-and-mortar artistic home since 2014, currently slated to close at the end of March. Conceived as a traveling gallery show and community-engaged ritual performance exploring the experience of displacement and the act of letting go, THE ART OF LEAVING includes participation from The Flight Deck resident companies Lower Bottom Playaz and Kalm Korner in addition to Alena Museum, another arts organization which recently lost its home in Oakland.

RWE presents The Art of Leaving as a one-day celebration on Sunday, March 29, from 1 - 8 p.m. RWE company members, led by Artistic Director Amy Sass, will perform two ticketed hour-long shows at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Combining live original music, movement, puppetry, wearable boxes and more, the performers will lead audience members on a cosmic, transcendental journey of the imagination.

In between these two shows will be an open mic hosted by Ayodele "WordSlanger" Nzinga, artistic director of Lower Bottom Playaz, which has called The Flight Deck home since its doors first opened. Attendance at the open mic is by donation, and the public may sign up to perform at raggedwing.org/shows/art-of-leaving.

Additional programs running throughout the day include a gallery exhibit, featuring a retrospective of RWE's history, highlighted by posters, props and ephemera of past productions, plus works by RWE artists in mixed media. The exhibit opens March 12, and will also include an installation by members of Alena Museum, telling their own story of displacement and resilience. Other offerings include a print-making station allowing attendees to make their own commemorative print, and Kalm Korner, hosted by Oakland artist and wellness expert Kehinde Koyejo, offering a tranquil space to relax and practice self-care.

The day concludes with a ceremony and procession out into the streets to celebrate the legacy of The Flight Deck and commemorate this moment of collective leaving.
RWE hopes to continue the project at venues throughout the Bay Area. Each iteration would feature a monthlong development process in conversation with the local community around each venue, an art installation, a series of performances, space for audience contributions and a ritual procession featuring original, live music.

"We envision that artifacts of audience participation will accumulate in written, visual and digital forms, creating a conversation across communities in the Bay Area about experiences with displacement and the importance of cultural spaces to the life of a community," said RWE Executive Director Anna Shneiderman. "As our cities become sites of increasing gentrification, the role of the artist is ever more crucial. What happens when a city's artistic and cultural centers disappear? The Art of Leaving creates an opportunity for divergent communities and artists to come together to practice resilience in the face of loss."

The company holds out some hope that another local arts organization may yet take over the lease of its venue, allowing for it to remain an active hub for a variety of arts organizations including RWE. "We're open to a range of possibilities for the future of Ragged Wing," added Shneiderman, "but in the meantime, we're looking forward to a future that's less dependent on the costs of maintaining a physical space, embracing opportunities to tour around the region and beyond."

Performers in The Art of Leaving include Rachel Brown, Keith Davis, Akaina Ghosh, Nicky Martinez, Kate Mikhailov, Elizabeth Poock, Amy Sass, Sango Tajima, Marlene Tobias and Joshua Waterstone. Additional collaborators include Jaren Feeley (music direction), Lauren Tannous (art direction), and Eric Bohr and Tobias (gallery curation). In addition to performing, Sass serves as artistic director and dramaturg. Lead writers on the project include Brown, Ghosh, Martinez and Poock. Shneiderman serves as the project's creative producer.

Tickets for the events on March 29 start at $25, and may be purchased online at raggedwing.org/shows/art-of-leaving.